Internet home of Evan May, author of The King in Darkness

Autumn Days

No matter what the calendar says, it’s pretty clearly autumn, now. The leaves are well along changing colour, it’s cool and crisp in the mornings, and here in Canada, we just did Thanksgiving. If you were desperately trying to cling on to summer, I think it’s time to give up. Not me, though. Autumn is perhaps my favourite time of year, rivalled only by spring, when it is also warm without being scorching and the world is also in transition.

I suppose it always is. A lot of times we like the illusion of stability, but really change is constantly going on, in the climate, in ourselves, in the people around us. It’s just particularly noticeable at this time of year because things are changing colour and birds are heading south. Although the meanings we assign to things like this are largely arbitrary (why can’t autumn be the beginning of winter instead of the end of summer, as we usually see it?), it’s hard (in this culture, anyway) not to do at least a little taking of stock at this time of year.

A lot has happened this past season or so, some things not so good and others pretty exciting. I’ve gotten to change from being an unpublished writer to a published one – that’s one of the big ones. Hopefully I’m also on my way towards changing into a professional writer, as well. By that I don’t mean one who gets paid (although that would certainly be nice), but knowing how to do all the parts of the trade that take you from pursuing art as a hobby to art as a craft. I need to learn a lot more about marketing, self-promotion, and networking usefully. I keep being reminded that there’s a lot to being a writer beyond the writing part.

So that’s the change that’s mostly on my mind at the moment, as the seasons shift. We often like the illusion of stability because it feels safe, and things changing can be uncertain. We may like the way things are, and in any case, if things stay the same, at least we know what to expect. Who knows what might happen if things change? Sometimes that uncertainty is positive, though. Change is good. I have more changes I look forward to in the months to come, and no doubt some unplanned ones will make things interesting. By and large, it can’t be avoided and so there isn’t a lot of sense in worrying about it. For now, I shall try to just enjoy the autumn.

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Some exciting news this week: I got confirmation that not only will I be attending the upcoming Can-Con speculative fiction conference in Ottawa from October 30 through November 1st, and not only will I be spending some time at the Renaissance Press booth hanging out signing books, I will also be on a couple of panels! This will be my first time on the panel (outside of an academic setting) so this should be super fun and I’m really looking forward to it.

Can-Con has a great looking lineup of panelists that you can check out here, and read up on the con overall here. There’s still time to register, if you haven’t, Ottawa is awesome this time of year, and I’d love to see you there!

Even if you don’t have time to attend the con, the vendor room is open to the public, so you can get a copy of The King in Darkness – and all of the Renaissance Press titles, and whole stack of other Canadian SFF loot – that weekend anyway!